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Nick Darke born Nicholas Temperley Watson Darke (29 August 1948 – 10 June 2005) was an Cornish playwright and writer, poet, lobster fisherman, environmentalist, beachcomber, politician, broadcaster, film-maker and chairman of St Eval Parish Council. ==Life and writings== Nick Darke was born in Bodmin in Cornwall and lived most of his life in Porthcothan where his family have lived for four generations after moving there from Padstow. His grandfather was a sea-captain who spent his life at sea and was wrecked twice at the Cape of Good Hope.〔''The Wrecking Season'' (Film, 2004)〕 His father T. O. Darke, was a chicken farmer, fisherman and a distinguished ornithologist.〔''The Wrecking Season'' (Film, 2004)〕 His mother was the actress Betty Cowan. He was educated at St Merryn Primary School and Truro Cathedral School, from where he was expelled for getting drunk on sports day. He then attended Newquay Grammar School and subsequently trained as an actor at the Rose Bruford College in Kent. After making his professional début in repertory at the Lyric, Belfast, he went on to learn his craft at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, England, where he acted in over eighty plays and directed ''Man Is Man'', ''The Miser'', ''Absurd Person Singular'', ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'', and ''A Cuckoo in the Nest'', 1977–79. At Stoke he wrote his first full-length play, ''Never Say Rabbit in a Boat'' in 1977. He gave up acting to write full-time in 1978. Over the next twenty-eight years, he wrote twenty-seven plays which have been performed in theatres all over the world (eight for The Royal Shakespeare Company and two for The National Theatre). He also wrote for radio, television and film. Many of his plays reflect Cornish society and culture such as the tin mining, countryside, fishermen and the quirky nature of country living. During the later part of his career he worked regularly with the theatre company Kneehigh Theatre. One of his last works, the documentary ''The Wrecking Season'' (2004) which he wrote and narrated, charts the lives of Cornish beachcombers, of which he himself was one having moved permanently back home to Porthcothan in 1990. He married the painter Jane Spurway in 1993 and is the father of film-maker Henry and stepfather of Jim, a marine scientist. He was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd in 1996 taking the Bardic name ''Scryfer Gwaryow'' ('Writer of Plays').〔()〕 While recovering from a stroke that he suffered in January 2001, Nick Darke was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died, aged 56, in June 2005. A unique beach funeral ceremony was followed by burial in St Eval churchyard. His son Henry and wife Jane Darke continued his legacy in film. ''The Art of Catching Lobsters'', written and directed by Jane Darke, is a moving account of her husband's death and the grieving process. Premiered on BBC Four on 27 September 2007.〔()〕 it was subsequently shown at the 2007 Cornwall Film Festival〔()〕 A film version of his first play ''Never Say Rabbit in a Boat'' is in pre-production and will be made by APT Films. His son Henry Darke has made a film version of ''Danger My Ally''. In 2009 the Cornwall Youth Theatre Company began ''Darke Visions'', an eighteen-month festival running from Spring 2009 to Summer 2010 celebrating the life and work of Cornwall's foremost playwright, with the performance of ''Hells' Mouth'' (directed by Harry and Theresa Forbes-Pearce); ''The Body'' (directed by Tom Faulkner); and ''Ting Tang Mine'' (directed by Rory Wilton and Emma Spurgin Hussey). These plays went on tour in Cornwall during March/April 2009. In 2011 the theatre group o-region 〔()〕 toured small-scale venues with a new show ''One Darke Night'' which also celebrated Nick Darke's rich legacy. Combining specially commissioned film (featuring Nick's son, Henry) and a small cast of players, the play fused extracts from lesser-known works with firm audience favourites such as ''The King of Prussia'' and extracts from Nick's other writings. Compiled by Simon Harvey who had worked with Nick on the production of his final play ''Laughing Gas'' in 2006, the production provided fresh insight into the remarkable range and diversity of Nick's catalogue of work. Nick Darke's literary voice is very distinctive and although many of his characters, plots and settings are rooted in the Cornish past, his themes are often of relevance to the Cornwall of today. As one of his earliest reviews, in ''The Financial Times'' stated: "Darke gives shape to a Cornish idenitity that feels vital and real and has nothing to do with clay pipes and clotted cream". Although he made a vital contribution to the culture of Cornwall in the last quarter of the 20th century, he himself claimed only that his greatest achievement (and that of his wife Jane) was convincing North Cornwall District Council not to mechanically rake the beaches in their area that was damaging the natural eco-structure.〔''The Art of Catching Lobsters'' (Film, 2005)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nick Darke」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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